


White Winter Hymnal

by katfish



Series: Story ideas I came up with while at work. [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Baby Peter Parker, Cute, Dialogue Heavy, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Retail Worker Steve, Singing, Single Parents, Tony Stark is Good With Kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 09:49:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19827631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katfish/pseuds/katfish
Summary: When Tony needs to run errands, He brings Peter along with him. Although once inside, Peter has a meltdown. An unlikely force calms him down.





	White Winter Hymnal

Tony had been busy all day. Surprisingly, running the hottest tech company on the planet is a pretty time-consuming job. But Tony was finally off work and was happy to spend time with his son Peter. 

While he was walking home, a store mannequin caught Tony’s eye. Tony wandered into the store and went to a young girl who was folding clothes. “Excuse me. Where could I find the outfit that was on the baby mannequin?” Tony asked pointing to the one in the window. 

“I can show you!” The girl said bubbly as she led him to the section. 

“Thanks so much!” Tony said with a dazzling smile. 

“No problem! I’ll be around if ya need anything else.” The girl walked away and went back to folding. 

Tony looked through the rack of clothing for a minute or so. Until he found what he was looking for, a red onesie with light yellow trim around sleeves. He took a few off the rack and inspected them to see the different sizes. Tony picked one that looked about Peter’s size, he should’ve brought Peter with him. 

Tony continued to shop around. He came across a pair of polka dotted pajamas. The only size they seemed a bit big for Peter, but he’d grow into them. 

Once Tony finished shopping he paid and went home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a little after 4 o’clock when the elevator doors dinged open and Tony walked into the penthouse bag in hand. He placed his jacket on a chair. Tony saw Rhodey sitting on the couch, bouncing Peter on his lap.

“Hey, Peter look who’s home!” Rhodey said as he stood up while holding Peter. 

Peter made a series of gurgling noises before finally getting out “Dada dada.” While making grabby hands at Tony. 

Tony took Peter in his arms “Hey Peter did you have fun with Uncle Rhodey today?” He asked excitedly at the boy. 

Peter started laughing and Tony smiled. “Thank you for watching him today. Sorry if I got home a little later than usual.” 

“No worries, Peter loves me. Don’t you Peter?” Rhodey asked looking over at the child. Peter was silent. Tony burst out into laughter. 

“You sure about that?” Tony sarcastically nudged Rhodey. 

“Yeah yeah, I know that kid loves me.” Rhodey brushed off Tony’s remark. “I should probably head out. Bye Tony! Bye Peter!” Rhodey said walking out. 

“Later Rhodes,” Tony said while grabbing Peter’s hand and waving it Rhodey. “Peter say bye to Rhodey.” Peter giggled and Rhodey left. 

“I got you something, Petey! Wanna see?” Tony said with enthusiasm making Peter excited. 

Tony opened up the bag and tried to show Peter the clothing, but the boy was more interested in the paper bag. Tony chuckled and took the bag away from Peter. 

“Come on bud let’s try these on,” Tony said taking off the pajamas that Peter was wearing and put on the spotted pajamas. Just as Tony suspected, they were a bit big but it wasn’t noticeable. 

“What do think? You like em?” Tony asked and Peter waved his arms up and down signaling his pleasure. 

“Alright!” Tony picked up Peter’s arm and gave himself a high five. “We got one more to try on.” Tony removed the pajamas and tried to get the onesie on Peter. 

Peter got halfway through the onesie before getting stuck. It was too small. Peter tried to wiggle himself into it and when that didn’t work he started to cry. 

Tony quickly lifted the onesie off of Peter and consoled his son. “Shhhh, shhh Peter it’s okay. Sometimes things don’t fit. We can go out and get a bigger one now-“ before Tony could finish that thought his stomach rumbled, “We can go after we eat something.” Tony hadn’t eaten anything all day. Tony in record speed put on the pajamas that Peter had originally started the day in, and then asked: “Petey are you hungry?” Peter nodded.

“Alright let’s get you something to eat.” Tony put Peter into his high chair and pinched his cheeks. 

Tony riffled through the cabinets and found a jar of mashed carrots and put it in a bowl for Peter. Tony decided to make himself a simple sandwich. With both of their meals ready, Tony sat next to Peter and placed the bowl in front of him. Tony took a few quick bites of his sandwich and then focused on feeding Peter. 

After a series of surprisingly successful spoonfuls of carrots, Peter’s bowl was empty. Tony hoisted the boy up on his shoulder to burp him. Once that was finished, Tony ate the remainder of the sandwich, put the onesie in the bag and chucked it into the bottom of the stroller. Then it was just a matter of getting Peter ready to go out. 

Peter loved being outside. He could barely contain himself in the stroller. He was a naturally curious child he wanted to look at and explore everything. Tony kept him in the stroller, they had a mission to complete. Tony did not want this to become a whole ordeal. 

The two entered the store. It was less busy then when Tony went in earlier. Tony found the same girl from earlier and walked over to her. “Hello again! Where would I go to return this?” Tony took the onesie out of the bag and handed it to her.

“Oh no, it didn’t fit. I can help you return that over here.” She said with a smile before her eyes wandered to inside the stroller. “Oh my God, he’s absolutely adorable!” She cooed, waving at Peter. Peter smiled and laughed a little bit. “You’re all set! Would you like to keep the bag, in case you buy anything else?” 

“Yeah, why not.” Tony shrugged, taking the bag from her and putting it back in the bottom of the stroller. 

“Awesome! I hope you have a nice night!” She said keeping the same positive energy. 

“Thanks, you too.” Tony smiled and pushed the stroller towards the baby section. Tony liked the girl a lot. She seemed like a good worker, if not she definitely made customers feel welcome. It must be hard keeping that up in a minimum wage job. 

Tony was taken out of his thoughts when he heard something. 

_ “I was following the, I was following the, I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats” A heavenly voice sang.  _

Tony tried to look for the source of the singing but it seemed to stop as quickly as it started. His attention was brought back onto Peter who became extremely excited by all the clothing. 

“Let’s look at the onesies first, then we can look at everything else,” Tony said calmly to try and prevent a meltdown from Peter. 

This seemed to work and Tony wheeled the stroller to where he had found the onesie earlier. Tony shuffled through the rack to look for the next size up. This, unfortunately, had no avail. Someone must’ve bought it earlier. Tony sighed in defeat as he let Peter look at all the clothes. 

Peter stuck his head out of the stroller and looked around. He quickly found a sweater that he liked and started to point at it. Tony had a feeling of why the sweater caught his attention. He brought Peter over to the rack of shiny purple sweaters. Peter was mesmerized by the material. 

“You like this Petey?” Tony asked already knowing the answer. Peter waved his arms up and down in excitement. 

Tony flipped through the selection looking for his son’s size. All of a sudden Tony heard the singing again. 

_ “I was following the pack all swallowed in their coats, with scarves of red tied round their throats.”  _

Tony’s head instantly whipped around determined this time to find the source of the song. He spotted a head of dirty blond hair in the vicinity bobbing his head left and right. It must be him. But once again he left before Tony could truly get his answer. 

Tony was brought out of his mission by the sound of Peter’s wailing. Trying to think of a quick solution, Tony grabbed the first sweater and handed it to Peter. 

“Look Peter it’s the sweater that you like,” Tony said.

The sweater no longer mattered to Peter. He threw it on the ground. Tony picked up the sweater and threw it back on the rack. He picked up Peter and tried to calm him down that way. 

“Shhh, buddy it’s okay. Everything’s okay.” Tony’s voice was barely louder than a whisper. He bounced his crying son up and down hoping the movement would help. It didn’t Peter was still currently causing a scene. Tony absolutely hated being the parent who looked like they couldn’t control their child. He honestly had no idea what would cause Peter’s meltdown. 

“Wanna go home?” Tony was more pleading than asking at this point. Maybe Peter had gotten overstimulated and just needed to leave. 

Peter continued to cry. That wasn’t it. 

“Shhh, Peter don’t worry you’re safe.” Tony ran his hand through the boy’s hair. Tony kept bouncing Peter and started to slowly pace around the clothing section. 

Almost instantly Peter’s cries stopped. Tony was relieved. He was more than thankful. But he was curious about what stopped the boy’s crying because clearly, it wasn’t him. Before he could even think of what the answer could be, Tony heard it. 

_ “To keep their little heads from falling in the snow, and I turned round and there you go. And Micheal you will fall, and turn the white roses red, as strawberries, in the summertime.”  _

Tony was a little shocked that a total stranger’s singing calmed his son down. The worker didn’t even know what kind of effect his singing had since he was just folding clothes with his back turned to Tony and Peter. 

Tony fished a stuffed animal out of the stroller and gave it to Peter to hopefully keep him calm. Tony goes to approach the gift from god disguised as a retail employee. 

“Hey, uh, excuse me.” Tony awkwardly said to get the employee’s attention. 

“Hi! How can I help you?” The worker turned to face Tony. 

Tony stared in awe at the man. He was beautiful. His blond hair was tousled making it look messily perfect. He also had a killer beard that framed his face. Tony tried to think of something to say, so it didn’t look like he was just staring at him. “This is gonna sound a little weird, but thank you.” Tony managed to say. 

“Oh, um, no…problem…?” The employee replied obviously confused. 

Tony awkwardly chuckled, “Right, let me clarify. My son over there Peter.” Tony whipped his head around to make sure Peter was still in the stroller. Which he was. Peter sat playing with his toy in the stroller acting like he didn’t just have a meltdown all of two minutes ago. “You may have just heard him crying a little bit ago, but your singing calmed him down.” Tony continued before adding “So I truly must thank you.”

The worker was clearly flustered. “Oh-yeah-um-yo-you’re welcome.” The worker took a breath to collect himself before speaking again. “To be honest, I didn’t even know that anyone could hear me. I only sing because there’s nothing else keeping me sane here.” The blond smiled and laughed. 

“Anyways thanks again…” Tony took in the sight that was the employee’s muscular chest and found a nametag “Steve.” 

“Have a nice night...um…” Steve’s voice trailed off. 

“Tony.” Tony turned around and winked at Steve. 

Tony walked back to the stroller and picked up Peter. “Was someone being a little drama queen?” Tony rhetorically cooed at his son. “We definitely know where you get it from.” Tony laughed to himself and so did Peter. “How about we get you that sweater?” Tony asked even though he was already grabbing it.

Peter excitedly squealed. 

Tony wheeled the stroller towards the register and saw Steve standing behind one. “Long time no see.” The two men both laughed as Steve rung up the sweater. 

“Do you need a bag?” Steve asked kindly. 

“No, I’ve already got one from before,” Tony said crouching down to grab the bag from the bottom of the stroller. 

As Steve waited for Tony to get the bag, his gaze fell to Peter who was sitting calmly. 

“Well aren’t you just the cutest thing?!” Steve gasped. 

“He is when he’s not making a fuss.” Tony handed the bag over to Steve. 

Steve neatly folded the sweater and placed it in the bag. “Everything is all set! Have a nice night you two!” 

“Thank you, you too!” Tony smiled. “Peter say bye to Steve!” Tony took one of Peter’s pudgy little arms and waved it at Steve. 

“Bye Peter!” Steve called out as the father-son duo were leaving the store.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! This is very loosely based off me going insane working the baby department of Target. White Winter Hymnal is one of my favorite songs to sing at work because it's easy to remember and it keeps me entertained. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> Comments & Kudos are greatly appreciated!
> 
> I hope you have a great day!
> 
> ~Kate :)


End file.
